Ben, Capri is not at all 'dry' or 'opaque' sounding. Capri is in fact incredibly revealing, transparent, and 'musical' to my ears. Furthermore, Capri is extremely extended from top to bottom and appears to have a very linear frequency response throughout the spectrum, without obvious trofs or emphasized areas. In that, I prefer it over Ref 3, which to my ears is slightly less extended, has a slight 'richness' in the bass region with less pitch definition, and has a generally warmer sound in the midrange. However, this is a matter of personal preference. . . while I prefer a musical but neutral sound, other audiophile prefer the 'lush' sound of tubes. Hope this helps. Gudo
